Category: A post on the World of Warcraft

“I like to write when I feel spiteful. It is like having a good sneeze.”
D. H. Lawrence

Classic Misadventures

Last night three of us showed up in Discord. One left to go to bed since we didn’t have enough for mythic plus. So, we decided to flip to Classic and quest together. Both around 20 and at the tail end of Darkshore.

It was fun. I can not think of the last time I quested with someone, maybe Cataclysm? Long, long time ago, for sure. We did some of the harder quests like the escort quests and even went into the danger zone of Ashenvale and did a level 24 quest for a ring. I really enjoyed it.

I’ve been a Skinner since level 10. And undecided on my second profession. My questing partner suggested Leather Working, so why not? I followed a guide and leveled a bunch up and then farmed this morning and leveled up, mostly making the same thing and vendoring. Until I realized that the last things that I was vendoring, I could have used! It would have been an upgrade to actually wear a crafted piece. Imagine my surprise.

The guide made me laugh. “Make 40 of these leather belts and save them to make the next recipe.” Ha … 40 slots of bag space. Not even in my bank.

So, I’m level 20 and 40 is when you get a mount. It costs 100 gold but less if I have the Darnassus reputation to exalted. So, 90 gold. I’m level 20 and I have 2 gold. I need to find something that sells just like everyone else who is trying to sell leather or LW goods or cooked fish. I’m willing to farm but so is everyone else.

I’d hate to go back and reset everything. As always, the gold maker is herbalism/alchemy. Players are using potions and flasks and buff items a lot. Ah – Classic.

“Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.”
H. L. Mencken

Progressing Along

My Druid dinged 65 on the neck piece and opened the third Essence slot. That is a milestone with only 67 and the 3% stam boost left. One hopes that 70 will bring another great dragon encounter.

My Warlock is mid-64 on the neck piece. Doing the emissary quests every day will bring the paragon chest and the big AP bump.

My Hunter is 61 on this neck piece, believe it or not. This guy only does emissaries on occasion and a warfront. He is ilevel 413. There is a hidden dream of replacing my Warlock with my long-time favored Hunter in raids. I know that losing the summon portal and healthcookies would be a loss to our team.

616 pvp pet battle victories. The goal is 1000 with the Trainer title. It has taken me two years to get this far so I’d guess another year to reach my finish line.

In Classic, my Hunter is now 18 and can use two-handed sword stat sticks. That was a good run to Stormwind to learn a new skill after being gifted by a guildie. I ran deep into Ashenvale to get the Stag meat and Big Bear meat recipes.

And I am still enjoying the toy from Kill Saw.

No complaints on my part. It hurts seeing our raid teams drain away to Classic and other games and real life challenges. But, I’m still having fun.

This toy is too good to leave in your toy box. With a fifteen minute uptime and a one hour cooldown, I decided to macro it with my hearthstone. This macro lives in the shared box and all of my 120s use this macro.

The instant cast spells go before the channeled spell. I couldn’t resist the Adopted Puppy Crate because the magical summoning motions by my character look more like I summoned the puppies than I am about to hearth out.

“A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables.”
Gertrude Stein

The Break to Classic

Our raid team in the guild is now officially on hiatus, probably for a month or until people begin expressing interest again. Having always raided, this can make one worry.

We are assuming that the zeal for Classic will fade and the desire to play BfA will return but what if it doesn’t? What if people play deep into Classic and get tired of it and then BfA seems a burden with its daily demands to sustain a character?

What I like about my Classic experience is that I just don’t give a damn, my dear. There is no urge to excel on any level or to impress anyone with my mad skills. My character is a tiny bit stuck with quests to run to Ashenvale but I’m level sixteen.

In Classic, the travel is a burden. We know that. We have the Numb Lock key and a dazed slouch in our chair. I hope that the next expansion has a ton of real estate to explore. These big zones are cool.

One reason our raid team lost steam is Lady Ashvane on Heroic. It is a hardy dps and healing check and the design is that we’d down the first three bosses over and over until we are geared enough. Those three are not enough to fill two nights of raiding.

I can’t tell our players what to do but getting our neck pieces to 65 during our hiatus would make all the difference when we return to group play. But, I understand, this may be the death of guild raids for me.

The Killsaw toy drop is awesome. For a hunter, it replaced their weapon with a gun that has moving pistons on it and a cog-plate on the player’s back.

For other players, it is circular saw blades spinning sparks in the hands.

We are a small but long-time guild. There’s never been a push to collect members, they sort of joined us along the way. Much of this is because we have a great guild master.

When Classic was announced, many asked if we’d be making a guild in Classic. These long-time players wanted to continue. So, we encouraged everyone to pre-select a character name and choose the Pagle server.

Now that Classic has arrived, we face an hour-long queue time. It is brutal.

The thought of trying to shift people over to another server is scary. Some of our guys only play weekends and would be lost. And, people were faithful and have started their characters on Pagle.

I can’t help but wonder how many guilds did the same as us. It feels like we are screwed by doing it right. One can hope for relief from several avenues by players making choices, not by Blizzard fixing us.

I am sure that the PR guys are stoked. Headlines can read that servers are full and they had to open more. But, I see that queue time and simply shudder.

From MMO Champs:Barron’s cited reports of hours-long wait times to log into the game, and quoted Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision, as saying World of Warcraft Classic set a record for launch-day concurrent viewers on Twitch, a platform which hosts live-streams of gamers playing which people can watch.

“The business model for World of Warcraft is highly profitable, with a subscription costing $15 a month. If World of Warcraft Classic drives a couple million new subscribers for a few quarters, it would boost the company’s earnings significantly,” Barron’s said.

So anyways, we got our ten signatures and everyone can join. Our guild is called: Wheres the Achieve.

The Hunter’s rite of passage is at level ten when the first pet is tamed. It is an awesome experience after melee Raptor Strike on a forever cooldown for nine levels. The game is fast now.

So: here is what is what.

I played for four hours yesterday. The first two were fishing and then cooking so I could sustain my new friend. I fished at the village below Darnassus because you only catch one kind of fish and the fishing trainer is right there.

At level 10, you do some taming practice runs in Dolanaar and then are sent to Darnassus and then you go back to find a pet that is close to your level. Then, once tamed, you go back to the trainer in Darnassus and teach your pet growl so that she can hold aggro.

My pet is a cat and I named her Softstepper.

The last two hours were pure fun. It was hard to stop.

/cast Hunter’s Mark
/petattack

There is a giant difference in Classic from BfA. In Classic, your pet hauls ass. I mean she almost leaves a smoke trail. Click on a mob from afar and hit your macro and that pet is off like a shot! Once you get into range, she’s got aggro and pew pew pew.

Totally non-stop fun. Far more fun than the laborious experience in BfA.

……………………..

I’m at level 11 now. When I ding 12 everything changes again with Pet Mend.

/castsequence reset=10 Mend Pet, null

That will give you the countdown for when the Mend Pet spell is ready again.

Then, once 12, I’ll stand on the road and hit petattack macro, then once tagged, follow so my pet races back, then attack again and kill so the mob dies at my feet. While I drink coffee.

Then, I’ll stand on a road and tag a mob with petattack and then another mob with petattack and bring them both back using follow and then attack using assist so I am helping on the mob that has the aggro. While I drink coffee.

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Oscar Wilde

Classic WoW: The Buffs

Progress Report: I am level eight and was too broke to post anything on the Auction House. Really broke. That had to change so I am a skinner now. Some small income would be great even for a linen bag or two.

I play with my bags open to track how full they are because of how small everything is. This must improve and skinning and the AH is my solution.

The very first thing that endeared me to WoW during the Burning Crusade was the players can gift others with a buff. As you can see, I had several including the forgotten thorns!

It makes me feel good when I am granted a buff or that I can buff others. There is a generosity about it. In this low zone, it is not unusual to toss an arrow at a mob when another player is in melee and struggling along. I see others do it all of the time.

And, we cancelled our raid last night. Too few players and we didn’t want to pug people in. So, I played Classic after a forty-five minute queue time. This is crazy, man.